30 Laps and an Epiphany

I'm not about to qualify for the Olympics in swimming by any means, but each time I go out there I can tell I am getting faster (*I almost typed "fatter" just then... what do you think that means?) and I have recently increased my previous 24 laps to an even 30 in the same time span, which I think is pretty damn good. For me, the best way to make it through long and intense cardio of any kind is to occupy the far corners of my brain with something other than boredom, discomfort, or exhaustion and I happened to let my mind wander to myspace. What a thing, this myspace. If only I had it when I was a kid, I would have been able to keep in touch with so many people that I have loved and lost over the years in moves and changing schools. I thought about how lucky kids are now'a'days to have such a thing. As I was contemplating why anyone wouldn't value a tool that helped connect you to people that are or were important in your life, or friends and relatives far away, I realized that, infact, I was the lucky one. Thank God that myspace and email weren't around when I was younger. What if it had been? Thanks to myspace, I have been able to get in touch with a friend that I haven't seen in years and despite the fact that we no longer live close by, we are now able to visit each other and share our life stories like we used to and neither of us have really changed. We are still pretty much the same people and still great friends. I wonder if we had myspace all along, would the friendship have faded away as the novelty of keeping in touch is devoured by the melodrama of everyday life as a teenager? I think that making the reconnection later in life has been much more valuable- good friends- true friends- are harder to come by. Personally, I appreciate it more and I can tell the difference more readily.
And what about those people that used to mean so much to you? On more than a few occassions I have reconnected with someone on myspace only to find out that they have grown up to be nothing like the person I once knew... or even worse, not only have they changed... but they've chosen some interesting paths to take as well. To each his own, I suppose, but the point is, it ruins the fairy tale. It changes the memory and there isn't anything more precious than that. What do we have if we lose those?
I'm sorry I opened some of those old doors. Thankfully, it was all worth it for just that one friend who gets me better than anyone else... but the truth is that for the most part- you can't go back home.
Fortunately, after swimming laps, the ol' treadmill has a tv and I have my MP3 player so the thinking can come to an end, giving way to sweating, zoning, and drooling. Look what happens when I have too much time on my hands.